Proactively prophylactic

Teen pregnancy rates tumble, but why?

Many of us can recall the decidedly uncomfortable moment in health class when an equally uncomfortable teacher began discussing the human reproductive process. Of course, there are also many of us who never heard that particular presentation, either because a school or a parent had decided that it would not be part of our curriculum.

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Posted May. 20, 2014 at 2:00 AM

Posted May. 20, 2014 at 2:00 AM

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Many of us can recall the decidedly uncomfortable moment in health class when an equally uncomfortable teacher began discussing the human reproductive process. Of course, there are also many of us who never heard that particular presentation, either because a school or a parent had decided that it would not be part of our curriculum.

A recent study by the Guttmacher Institute reveals, however, that teenagers are treating their reproductive capabilities much differently than they did a few decades ago. In fact, since 1990, teen pregnancy rates have experienced a precipitous decline. This culminated in 2010, the latest year for which data is available, with a teen pregnancy rate pegged at 6 percent of teenagers — the lowest number in four decades. And although correlation does not necessarily mean causation, 2010 also marked the lowest teenage abortion rate since 1973, when Roe v. Wade legalized the procedure.

Although overall trends paint a positive picture, the results are not uniform. In 2006, pregnancy rates began to creep up again, although the downward trend resumed in 2008. Further, not all states in the Union are created equal when it comes to such data. Southern states lead the way with the highest teen pregnancy rates, with New Mexico, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana rounding out the top five. Interestingly, the five states with the lowest rates find themselves in the northern climes: New Hampshire, Vermont, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Maine.

Perhaps not coincidentally, three northern states — New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — accounted for more than half of teen abortions in 2010, while a slew of Southern states recorded the lowest percentage of teen abortions.

So what is going on here?

It is difficult to ascribe a particular cause or causes to the declines, but a willingness to discuss birth control and other contraceptive measures, as well as the increased availability of such protection, has almost certainly played a role. The authors note that between 2007 and 2009 alone, the number of 18- and 19-year-old women who reported that they used long-term reversible contraception tripled. Consider also that the pregnancy rate among sexually experienced teenagers fell 43 percent between 1990 and 2010 and you get the sense that although many teenagers are still having intercourse, many more of them are being proactively prophylactic.

Interestingly, some of those trends are reflected in the lives of young women as well. In a two-year period beginning in 2008, the pregnancy rate of teenagers between the ages of 15-19 dropped 15 percent. During the same time, the pregnancy rate dropped 12 percent for women between the ages of 20-24.

Awkward health classes aside, there is some evidence to suggest that these trends are not exclusive to the United States; several Western European countries have reported similar declining numbers in recent years. Did the global recession of 2008 prompt teenagers to make pregnancy decisions based at least partly on economic realities?

The policy implications of such information are considerable, and conservatives and liberals will likely fall over each other to take credit for the numbers. What remains to be explored, however, is the reason these numbers are moving downward. It is one thing to declare a trend; it is something else entirely to determine the reasons behind a trend.